Tony Blair, jet-set 'social engineer'

One of the best reads of the day has to be John Arlidge's account in the Sunday Times of life on the road with Tony Blair, which provides some fascinating insights into his nomadic first class existence. The former Prime Minister spends three out of four weeks outside the UK (talk about being non-domiciled), touring the world in pursuit of his multiple interests and making lots of money in the process.

Mr Tony must still feels the scars on his back from trying to reform public services back home, which must be why he appears to have lost faith in government. He says: "I'm a social engineer now. I can engineer social change on my own terms, outside of a big government buraucracy." There's more like that in the piece, which suggests someone who is beginning to think that democracy just gets in the way. Talk about power corrupting.

But it's the details that are revealing, like the fact that on one trip he was ferried between the Middle East and Rwanda on the Rwandan president's private jet. Also worth noting what he has to say about the British media: “I’ve got a problem with the UK media. They don’t approach me in an objective way. Their first question is how to belittle what I’m doing, knock it down, write something bad about it. It’s not right. It’s not journalism. They don’t get me and they’ve got a score to settle with me. But they are not going to settle it.”

But my favourite extract is this one: "Everywhere he goes in Africa, he is lauded as some kind of saviour and he appears to enjoy it. After meeting him in Kigali, Anastase Murekezi, Rwanda’s minister of public service and labour, goes on television to describe the encounter as “a blessing from God”. In each African village Blair goes to, there are young children called Tony Blair. Spend time with him and you get an awkward sense that he sees himself as a bit of a 21st-century missionary saving souls — economically if not spiritually." Gordon Brown, eat your heart out.